by Tom Strode, posted Wednesday, December 16, 2009 (14 years ago)
WASHINGTON (BP)--Members of Congress and a bipartisan commission have called on the Obama administration to take decisive action regarding what they described as an emboldened dictatorship in Sudan.
The House of Representatives members, as well as commissioners of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), called for more engagement from the top of the administration after Khartoum's extremist Islamic regime cracked down on members of the opposition party in the National Assembly and peaceful protesters.
According to reports, at least two top officials of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the primarily Christian party based in the southern part of the country, were arrested. Police beat demonstrators during the Dec. 7 arrests. Also, Sudanese forces fired tear gas into a crowd of about 200 and made dozens of arrests of people calling for democratic reforms outside the parliament building Dec. 14, according to the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
The actions call into question full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that closed a two-decade-old civil war between the Arab Islamic north and the mostly Christian south, said advocates for religious freedom and human rights.
"The time has come for Secretary [of State] Clinton and President Obama to personally and actively engage on Sudan," Rep. Frank Wolf, R.-Va., said in prepared remarks Dec. 15. Read More
